Portugal

Road infrastructure can contribute to crash risk when safety-related issues are not identified and addressed during the planning and design stages. Road Safety Audits provide a systematic and independent assessment of road projects, helping to prevent crashes and reduce their consequences before infrastructure is built or substantially modified.

Effective implementation of this procedure requires qualified professionals with specialised knowledge of road design, crash analysis, human factors, the Safe System approach and the needs of all road users, including vulnerable road users.

In Portugal, access to the profession of Road Safety Auditor is regulated and requires civil engineers with relevant professional experience to complete specific training delivered by a training provider certified by the Institute for Mobility and Transport (IMT).

PRP’s initiative addressed the need to translate these legal and technical requirements into a comprehensive training programme capable of developing the competencies required to identify infrastructure-related risks and formulate appropriate safety recommendations. By training engineers from Infraestruturas de Portugal, the national road infrastructure manager, the initiative also aimed to strengthen the institutional capacity to integrate road safety into the planning, design and assessment of road infrastructure.

Work-related road safety remains an underestimated risk in many organisations with vehicle fleets. In Portugal, thousands of employees drive every day as part of their professional activity, using cars, vans, trucks, buses, motorcycles and service vehicles. However, road safety is often treated as an occasional awareness topic, instead of being managed with the same structure applied to costs, maintenance, operations or sustainability.
SEGEF FROTAS addresses this challenge by helping organisations move from isolated actions to structured road safety management programmes. The initiative focuses on companies and fleet operators where road risk is created by operational pressure, driver behaviour, vehicle use, journey patterns, lack of monitoring, weak safety culture and insufficient management involvement.
The challenge is also cultural: many companies still do not recognise road crashes as a major occupational, social and business risk. Road safety is rarely integrated into sustainability reporting, fleet policy or management review.
SEGEF FROTAS aims to change this by promoting road safety as a management responsibility, supported by diagnosis, leadership, training, data, monitoring, continuous improvement and recognition of good practices. The target groups include fleet managers, company leaders, operational managers, professional drivers, service vehicle users, public authorities, non-profit organisations and road safety partners.

Road accidents kill 1.35 million people globally every year, with 94% caused by human factors — distraction and fatigue being the leading contributors. Professional drivers, particularly in ride-hailing and commercial fleets, face heightened risk due to long shifts, irregular hours, and constant exposure to urban traffic conditions. Existing driver monitoring technology relies on dedicated hardware — infrared cameras, sensors, integrated systems — costing hundreds or thousands of euros per vehicle. This makes meaningful deployment economically unviable at scale, particularly across the diverse, large fleets operated by ride-hailing platforms in emerging and developing markets, where road fatality rates are highest but resources are most constrained.
WingDriver addresses this gap directly: distraction and fatigue are the largest preventable causes of crashes, yet no scalable, affordable technology existed to detect and intervene against them in real time, on the vehicles and drivers who need it most. Our project with inDrive — one of the world's largest ride-hailing platforms, with 240 million downloads across 48 countries — set out to prove that AI-powered driver monitoring could be deployed entirely through drivers' existing smartphones, eliminating the hardware barrier that has limited adoption of this life-saving technology for over a decade.

Road workers operating on high-speed motorways face some of the highest occupational risks in the transport sector. Maintenance activities, road work, inspections, vegetation management, incident management and temporary traffic management frequently require workers to perform tasks near road traffic, where excessive speed, driver distraction and unexpected maneuvers can have severe consequences.
The Vision Zero programme was initiated in 2023, following several serious accidents that highlighted the need to further strengthen the protection of workers and road users across Brisa’s motorway network. These events reinforced the importance of moving beyond traditional safety measures and adopting a more systematic Vision Zero approach to risk management.
As Portugal’s largest motorway operator, Brisa identified several key challenges: reducing worker exposure, improving work zone visibility, eliminating hazardous activities, increasing operational consistency and ensuring that safety remained the top priority in all maintenance and operational activities.
A particular challenge was that many routine activities required workers to spend significant periods of time in high-risk environments. Pedestrian road crossings, manual cone deployment, vegetation maintenance in central reservations and repeated interventions at the same location all increased exposure to risk.
To address these challenges, Brisa focused on eliminating or reducing exposure wherever possible, mechanizing high-risk activities, improving vehicle and worker signaling and visibility, fostering a strong safety culture supported by innovation, training and continuous improvement.

Driver fatigue, sleepiness, and sleep disorders are among the most significant yet least recognised road safety risks in Portugal. While these factors are known internationally to contribute substantially to serious and fatal road crashes, there has been a lack of national data and public awareness regarding their prevalence and impact on Portuguese drivers.

The project addresses several key road safety challenges:

The high prevalence of fatigue and sleepiness among drivers, with more than half of Portuguese drivers reporting having driven while excessively tired or fatigued, and one-third admitting to driving while so sleepy that they had difficulty keeping their eyes open.

The presence of undiagnosed or poorly understood sleep disorders, including sleep apnoea and insomnia, which significantly increase the risk of fatigue-related driving incidents. Approximately one in four drivers experiences excessive sleepiness and one in five is at high risk of sleep apnoea.

Limited awareness of sleep disorders and their consequences for road safety, with around 20% of drivers unable to identify common sleep disorders or the main symptoms of sleep apnoea.

The widespread use of ineffective strategies to combat fatigue while driving, such as opening windows, increasing radio volume, or consuming caffeine, instead of evidence-based measures such as taking a nap or stopping to rest.

The significant contribution of fatigue and sleepiness to road crashes and near misses, particularly among young drivers, professional drivers, shift workers, and those driving during night-time and early morning hours.

By addressing these challenges, the project aims to improve awareness, encourage behavioural change, support early identification and treatment of sleep disorders, and ultimately reduce fatigue-related road crashes in Portugal.

PRP addresses road safety as a major public health challenge, focusing on the behaviours and risk factors that contribute most to road crashes, injuries and fatalities. Within the scope of PAFSE, our work is particularly connected to raising young people’s awareness of risky behaviours and strengthening their role as informed and responsible citizens, providing the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours necessary for safe behaviour.

The main road safety challenges we address include speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, fatigue, distraction caused by mobile phones and other devices, non-use or incorrect use of seatbelts and child restraint systems, protective equipment and unsafe behaviours among vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and powered two-wheeler users. We also work on broader issues such as risk perception, peer influence, mobility habits, and the importance of shared responsibility in creating safer communities.

Through educational activities, awareness campaigns, training programmes and partnerships with schools and other stakeholders, we aim to promote scientific literacy, evidence-based decision-making and safer attitudes from an early age. In the context of PAFSE, road safety education is framed as part of community preparedness, encouraging students to understand risks, analyse evidence, communicate prevention messages and act as ambassadors for safer mobility within their families, schools and local communities.

Nextop Co-pilot is an intelligent driving assistant app designed to enhance road safety and operational efficiency for professional drivers. It operates fully offline using preloaded routes and special geofences to deliver real-time, on-edge audio alerts—no network connection required.

By combining GPS tracking with customizable geofence zones, the app provides precise voice guidance about critical road segments, including dangerous curves, steep downhills, speed limits, obstacle zones, and other risk areas. Fleet operators can personalize messages per route or region, offering context-aware advice that improves driver awareness and decision-making.

The solution also integrates vehicle health data, enabling real-time alerts for issues like overheating, brake wear, or system warnings—helping to prevent breakdowns and improve maintenance planning.

All processing happens directly on the device, ensuring fast, reliable alerts even in remote areas. Designed for fleets and logistics operations, Nextop Co-pilot empowers drivers with the information they need, exactly when they need it—boosting safety, compliance, and route efficiency.

Young people are highly connected to their smartphones, using them constantly throughout the day—for communication, entertainment, and social validation. Their behaviors are heavily influenced by their peers and by content they consume on social media. This affinity presents both a risk and an opportunity. On one hand, mobile devices are a major source of distraction behind the wheel; on the other, they offer a powerful channel for influence and education.
The campaign with the influencer duo @viajarmaiscommenos was designed to address three of the most critical high-risk behaviors among young drivers: 1) digital distraction while driving, 2) failure to use seatbelts, and 3) excessive speed. These behaviors are key contributors to road accidents involving youth. By using trusted digital voices, the campaign created an authentic connection with the target audience, addressing their habits through real-life scenarios and emotionally charged storytelling. The initiative aimed to foster a cultural shift—making road safety a relatable and visible part of the digital conversation for this age group.